Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio News.
Speaker 2: Joining us now with Insight Life from Capitol Hill. Democratic
Speaker 2: Congressman Gregory Weeks of New York. He's ranking member of
Speaker 2: the House Foreign Affairs Committee, member of House Financial Services Committee,
Speaker 2: and so we have a lot to talk about. Congressman,
Speaker 2: it's great to see you. Thanks for being with us
Speaker 2: here on Bloomberg TV and radio. You heard what Eric
Speaker 2: was just telling us here. It looks like we are
Speaker 2: going to go over the cliff. Should our viewers and listeners,
Speaker 2: people who are actually on these plans, these Obamacare plans,
Speaker 2: should they expect this to be their new reality?
Speaker 1: It looks like it. I mean, Democrats have been trying
Speaker 1: to bring the alarm for a long period of time,
Speaker 1: and almost for the last fifteen years. The Republicans have
Speaker 1: said that they had an alternative plan. Yet no one
Speaker 1: has seen them produce anything. And this is something that
Speaker 1: should have been talked about. We've been advocating for it.
Speaker 1: We've been talking about an extension, if nothing else, to
Speaker 1: the tax credit for the Affordable Care Act so that
Speaker 1: it can be figured out or we have more time.
Speaker 1: Republicans have refused to do that. So it just seems
Speaker 1: that they, as we've been saying all along, are in
Speaker 1: complete disarray, and as a result, it's going to hurt
Speaker 1: millions of American citizens when they see their healthcare sometime,
Speaker 1: some of them will double. And this is what we
Speaker 1: were talking about before, and now it's going to become reality.
Speaker 2: So the affordability crisis that we have been talking about
Speaker 2: and President calls a Democrat hoax, it's about to get worse.
Speaker 2: Right if we look at this through a wider frame,
Speaker 2: this feeds into higher costs that people are facing across
Speaker 2: the board.
Speaker 1: Congressman, there's no question, I mean the American people, and
Speaker 1: as we saw when the President was in Pennsylvania just
Speaker 1: recently talking about this is a Democratic hoax, and everyone
Speaker 1: that was spoken with when they left said this is
Speaker 1: not a hoax because they know what their pockets feel like,
Speaker 1: they know what their insurance plans are looking like, so
Speaker 1: that they will soon have to make a choice, many
Speaker 1: of them, of whether they continue health care or not
Speaker 1: because they may not be able to afford it. And
Speaker 1: so the crisis is here now that's caused by the
Speaker 1: President of the United States, and unfortunately the President is
Speaker 1: also the facto speaker of the House. So the deputy
Speaker 1: speaker follows the speaker who happens to be the president,
Speaker 1: and nothing has been done, and nothing has been at
Speaker 1: least talked about to be for an agreement in a
Speaker 1: bipartisan way. And so now we're at on a cliff,
Speaker 1: no conversation, and guess what, January thirtieth is not that
Speaker 1: far behind.
Speaker 2: Also, well, you know, we just were talking about the
Speaker 2: possibility of another shutdown, and I don't know if anyone
Speaker 2: has the appetite for that, but I just want to
Speaker 2: ask you quickly about one of the options that is
Speaker 2: under consideration in the House of Representatives, realizing these both
Speaker 2: failed today. In the Senate, there's a discharge petition that's
Speaker 2: been put up by Brian Fitzpatrick. It's also got a
Speaker 2: Democrat on this as well. It's Brian Fitzpatrick, as I mentioned,
Speaker 2: on the Republican side. If there are enough votes here,
Speaker 2: this could be forced to the floor, Congressman, and it
Speaker 2: would extend the Obamacare subsidies by a couple of years,
Speaker 2: but also would add eligibility requirements. Is that something that
Speaker 2: you would vote for if you had the chance.
Speaker 1: Well, I haven't seen it. I would have to see it.
Speaker 1: Another there's something that they've tried to put together at
Speaker 1: the last second. You know, I think that again here
Speaker 1: we should have had the opportunity to have a dialogue
Speaker 1: and a conversation, a negotiation, as opposed to what's taking
Speaker 1: place right now. So I would have to, you know,
Speaker 1: before we get out of here next week, is to
Speaker 1: look at it to make a determination. But you can
Speaker 1: see how Congress is currently operating with this Republican leadership.
Speaker 1: Everything seems to have to be done by a motion
Speaker 1: to discharge. We cannot get anything on the floor so
Speaker 1: that we can vote in regular order. It is such
Speaker 1: craziness that's going on now. I've been in Washington for
Speaker 1: a long time, a member of Congress for twenty seven years,
Speaker 1: and I've never seen anything like this. And so though
Speaker 1: I believe a number of votes if we had the
Speaker 1: opportunity to vote for them on the floor, the Speaker
Speaker 1: and the President has blocked them. And so the only
Speaker 1: recourse that members are having is to try to work
Speaker 1: with motions to discharge and get two hundred and eighteen votes.
Speaker 1: That's what took place with the Epstein vote.
Speaker 2: Congress, when I want you to put on your foreign
Speaker 2: relations cap here and talk to US about what's happening
Speaker 2: off the coast of Venezuela. Because the United States has
Speaker 2: decided to seize an oil tanker. The President says that
Speaker 2: we will probably keep the oil. There are questions about
Speaker 2: what happens to the crew and whether more of these
Speaker 2: are about to happen. The US has just sanctioned six
Speaker 2: more of these. The way things work now in the Caribbean, well.
Speaker 1: Look, they are illegal in the way that it's working now.
Speaker 1: I think that number one, you know, you first heard
Speaker 1: that the president was down off the coast of Venezuela
Speaker 1: because of drugs. Clearly, by taking this oil tanker, it's
Speaker 1: not about drugs, And clearly you could you should have
Speaker 1: seen if you could take an oil tanker in the
Speaker 1: way that they have that you don't have to shoot
Speaker 1: down boats in the way and kill people in the
Speaker 1: way that they have. So it is not about drugs.
Speaker 1: It's about regime change to one degree and taking access
Speaker 1: to Venezuelan oil. Those seem to be the main motivations
Speaker 1: of the President of the United States. And this is
Speaker 1: not the way that we generally have historically operated in
Speaker 1: the United States. This is really how Russia operates, and
Speaker 1: so we are losing our values, as we've seen from
Speaker 1: the National Security report that came out that says, you know, Russia, China,
Speaker 1: and the United States forget about our friends and allies
Speaker 1: and how do we work with them. So all of
Speaker 1: this is coming to a head right now. So I
Speaker 1: strongly disagree, and I think the American people disagree. The
Speaker 1: President should be comingto Congress if this is a war
Speaker 1: that he's trying to get us into. That's why I
Speaker 1: do have a bill dealing with a War Powers Act,
Speaker 1: so that the demand is that the President comes and
Speaker 1: talk to Congress and stop trying to work around Congress
Speaker 1: to avoid us, so that we can do our oversight
Speaker 1: responsibility in appropriate way.
Speaker 2: When does that go to the floor, Congressman, and will
Speaker 2: you get a single Republican vote?
Speaker 1: Well, I think that we would get it. We're working
Speaker 1: diligent now talking to other members. And that's why the
Speaker 1: Speaker refuses to allow the bill on the floor because
Speaker 1: he knows if it reaches the floor, we would have
Speaker 1: a strong bipartisan vote, and so that's why they try
Speaker 1: to block it and make rules that will not allow
Speaker 1: bill to come to the floor at the appropriate time.
Speaker 2: You know, you mentioned Russia. Vladimir Putin is on the
Speaker 2: phone with with Maduro expressing solidarity today. In fact, they
Speaker 2: went back to this strategic treaty that was signed in
Speaker 2: May to talk about how this can be exploited more,
Speaker 2: confirming their commitment to joint projects and trade the economy,
Speaker 2: energy and other areas. Is Vladimir Putin about to make
Speaker 2: this more complicated?
Speaker 1: Well, he is. I mean, look, and there's some reason
Speaker 1: why the President of the United States, you know, we
Speaker 1: see that Russia's already killing Ukrainians on a daily basis,
Speaker 1: just about Russia is now joining hands with Nicholas Maduro,
Speaker 1: and why the President of the United States is not
Speaker 1: standing strong and making sure that you know, you talk
Speaker 1: about using power, you know, to control the situation. Yet
Speaker 1: he just seems to bow down to the will of
Speaker 1: Russia and whatever Russia says. And Russia can do whatever
Speaker 1: they want. And it's okay with this administration, but it's
Speaker 1: not okay with the American people. It's not okay with
Speaker 1: Democrats in the House and the Senate. And we're going
Speaker 1: to make sure that we have those voices. And I
Speaker 1: would hope that some of my Republican colleagues would finally
Speaker 1: join us and stand with us to hold this president
Speaker 1: accountable and make sure that we keep the highest standards
Speaker 1: and moral that we have with our European allies and others.
Speaker 2: I don't know if that'll cover the seizure of oil
Speaker 2: tankers like we saw a congressmen, But if this did
Speaker 2: in fact come from a shadow fleet, if this boat
Speaker 2: was operating illegally, do we owe that oil back to
Speaker 2: somebody and what happens to the crew?
Speaker 1: Well, look, I will tell you generally, in all of
Speaker 1: the time that I've been in Congress before, before this
Speaker 1: is done, there is at least with the Intelligence Committee,
Speaker 1: sometimes with the Armed Services Committee, and sometimes with the
Speaker 1: Florid and Affairs Committee, and sometimes in a combination thereof,
Speaker 1: and definitely with both Democrat and Republican leadership in the House,
Speaker 1: there is a dialogue in conversation. They go in the
Speaker 1: skiff or go down to the White House and they
Speaker 1: have a dialogue and they talk and they plan and
Speaker 1: at least indicate what they intent on doing. And in
Speaker 1: this situation is just chaos where you have a president
Speaker 1: who's just running a monk, doing whatever he wants to
Speaker 1: do and oftentimes violating the normal States, and I believe
Speaker 1: also violating the rules of law.
Speaker 2: I want to ask you about the invest Act while
Speaker 2: you're with us, Congressman, because you've got a lot of
Speaker 2: small business owners who are watching and listening right now.
Speaker 2: And I just talked about the state of small business
Speaker 2: with the head of the SBA, Kelly Leffler. Here's what
Speaker 2: she told us.
Speaker 3: Between tax cuts, deregulation, fair trade, we see jobs and
Speaker 3: opportunities coming back to America and then eighteen trillion dollars
Speaker 3: of investment coming in. A lot of that's going to
Speaker 3: play out on main street and that's why small business optimism,
Speaker 3: according to the US Chamber, is at all time highs.
Speaker 3: And you've got consumer confidence on the rise again, so
Speaker 3: consumers know that the best is yet to come first.
Speaker 2: What she told us argues with a lot of the
Speaker 2: data that we're seeing, Congressmen. The invest Acts, cuts red tape,
Speaker 2: expands access to capital. Will that helps small business owners
Speaker 2: get their own high prices.
Speaker 1: But that's what we want to do because we know
Speaker 1: that the policies that the president's putting forward now, for
Speaker 1: example with his tariffs, if you spoke to any small business,
Speaker 1: you know the cost to the small businesses have steadily increased,
Speaker 1: it's not decreased, their increased causing them problems. The instability
Speaker 1: and the uncertainty of the president's policies is costing small
Speaker 1: businesses a lot of money. They don't not know, they
Speaker 1: can't you know, get the right inventory, They don't know
Speaker 1: how much to buy because how much is going to
Speaker 1: cost going up. So as I speak to small businesses,
Speaker 1: this administration's policies have been devastating to them and devastating
Speaker 1: to the American consumer. And so that's why I was
Speaker 1: glad to be able to work with some of our
Speaker 1: Republican colleagues on the Financial Services Committee so that we
Speaker 1: can do something for small businesses get access to help
Speaker 1: them get access to capital, and for those individuals also
Speaker 1: who have four to one k's or iras for helping
Speaker 1: them with their retirements. And so we're trying to make
Speaker 1: sure that we are reaching to the small business and
Speaker 1: the average everyday worker, like sixty two percent of them
Speaker 1: who are invested in the markets. So it's not just
Speaker 1: the super rich friends of the president that having benefits,
Speaker 1: but it is the working people of America. And that's
Speaker 1: what we're trying to do there because clearly the president's
Speaker 1: policies are not working.
Speaker 2: Well, I know it's a bipart is an effort. Right now,
Speaker 2: I'd like to stay in touch with you on that.
Speaker 2: Democratic Congressman Gregory Meeks of New York, We thank you
Speaker 2: so much.